Crash and Burn
by NekoKittyKat
Summary: It's a time where death and destruction will reign and the strongest will survive. When Magneto recruited them they had no idea what they were getting into. Now one team is doomed to crash... and burn. (R for slash, sex, and violence. In that order)
1. Blood Tears of Pearls

Outside a dry thunderstorm had started up, the gray sky occasionally lighting up with a jolt of energy through the clouds. Lance's head jerked to the side to get a better look at the one stray bolt that had just landed a few miles outside of Bayville. That was strange considering the lightning hadn't gone to the ground yet and this certain bolt had chose a spot far from the ground below it and the tallest building, or tree. It was like wondering why kamikaze pilots wore helmets, just didn't make sense.  
  
A figure stood by the closed door and a large rumble from distant clouds quickly drowned a faint click out. The storm had temporarily taken the lights as it own, making small children that much afraid and forcing it's show to be seen. The figure took a step toward the window Lance was looking out of thoughtfully like the answer to some deep question was inscribed in the sky by the thunder. From the battery powered radio a garbled, static version of "It's Been Awhile" played, the older teen's ears filtering out the static having adapted to having everything in this run down house not work quite right. A hand twisted the knob until the volume was all the way down causing the earth manipulator to look over just as a flash of lightning revealing a pair of crimson shades.  
  
"What do you want," Lance asked quietly as not to let anyone on the other side of the paper-thin walls hear, "Scott?"  
  
"Something is bothering you."  
  
"Besides the blue bitch cramming us all in here? You getting all leader like and shit about your team when we showed up."  
  
"You knew Mystique had taken Xavier's form, you allowed yourself to be manipulated," Scott snapped back.  
  
As if they were about to engage in a fight Lance turned to face the other graduate, that was something he'd never thought he'd be able to call himself, face set in a frown that didn't reveal any emotion. "Fine, you bring that up against me so much I'll tell you why I did it. I was one of the members of the Brotherhood Magneto decided was fit enough to 'graciously' allow in his new little group, and I went cause I felt I owed the guy something, you know? I saw just how 'little' his team was. He has some mutants like you wouldn't believe, Scott; he has a girl who can mess with people brains, and not with the way Xavier or Red do, and this guy who turns everything he fucking touches into ice. I let Mystique manipulate me because I felt a need to protect the people I care about from them."  
  
"If he has such powerful mutants why didn't he use them?"  
  
"That's what I've been trying to figure out, and I ain't got a thing."  
  
"How many more than the three you met in battle does he have?"  
  
"I don't know, somewhere from ten to twenty, didn't meet them all." There was silence for a moment before Lance spoke again. "To be honest, I'm scared. These aren't any lackeys that'll just have to be pushed aside to get to Magneto."  
  
"We aren't lackeys either," Scott stepped closer to Lance until he was inches from his face, "they might be a challenge, but nothing more." He pressed his lips against Lance's hoping to reassure him in a way.  
  
"I hope you're right," Lance sighed letting Scott take him away from the troubles of his life, their life. What he wasn't looking forward to most was having to fight Pietro, his friend and a traitor.  
  
Outside of Bayville a few miles in a school that had been gutted and charred by a fire and then purchased by a mysterious man and turned into a boarding house of sorts the lights were also out. A girl with hair currently dyed electric blue with purple bangs, but she was seriously considering going back to neon green, ran down the hall towards the foyer stopping as her flashlight gave out.  
  
"Damn it." A few times Aine smacked the flashlight to try and get the batteries to work before tossing it carelessly over her shoulder. She rubbed her hands together before creating a miniature nova to light up her surroundings. Energy lit up the hall as debris was hurled toward the lockers that were now used as. what were they used for? Aine shrugged and continued on her path and skidded across the carpet of the large room, stumbling, and falling into Blue in an attempt to stop.  
  
"Where's your flash light?" The eldest mutant asked standing the girl upright.  
  
"Piece of crap is in the hall," Aine replied sitting down on the sofa and practically kicking Johnny as she stretched out. The foyer had been turned into the living room and mostly everyone was gathered there. "Scoot. over. John!" Aine emphasized each word with a kick.  
  
"Hey, mate, your bloody feet don't need that much room!" Johnny snapped shoving her feet over and off the couch.  
  
Aine shook her head multiple rings jangling from their holes in her head. "Touchy, touchy, Johnny."  
  
The lights flickered briefly as the back up generator finally decided to come to life and a few lights turned on. The intercom was also turned on as it crackled to life and Magneto's voice rang throughout the house.  
  
"Savage, Vampiress, Nova, Summoner, Lockpick, and Blade, to the office in ten minutes, come suited up. I've a mission for you six."  
  
Aine stretched and got up, kicking Johnny for the hell of it and went back to her room to change into her battle outfit. Blue shook his head and headed to his own room wondering what Magneto wanted from them.  
  
"You're going to destroy the Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding house," Magneto explained as the six he'd called stood waiting to be dismissed. Pietro stood in the corner, waiting for his part in this to come in. He sat silently, used to staying out of the way of the other residence, most of them hated him because he betrayed his team and being the boss' son didn't help matters much. "Quicksilver will show you the way. Vampiress, Savage."  
  
The two girls nodded looking at him with their strangely pale eyes, one set blue and the other hazel.  
  
"Bring back as many powers as you can. The rest of you concentrate on causing as much damage as possible." Nova smiled slightly imagining all the violence involved and held back an evil laugh. "If they don't have a, why don't we call it a base, they'll be easy to. persuade." He paused for a moment and shot a quick glare at Pietro who jumped and hurried over to stand next to the rest. "Bring Mystique back to me, the rest you can do whatever necessary with." He waved his hand in dismissal and the seven left.  
  
"This'll be fun," Nova tipped her top hat to hide her eyes as she sat back in the white van.  
  
Vampiress sat next to her, fanning out her leather jacket that was more like a cloak so she wouldn't sit on it. Savage took the last seat in the very back, Blade and Lockpick took the two in the middle and Quicksilver sat in the passenger's seat to give Blue directions.  
  
"No funny business, daddy's boy," Maya warned from the back in her protective of her friends manner, "or I'll be coming back with a full dose of super speed as my new power, got it?"  
  
"I don't think Magneto would like that very much," Pietro calmly replied.  
  
"We could make up a story," Blade answered with a wicked smirk.  
  
The lightning flashed outside the window, momentarily lighting up the house, and Mystique leaned casually against a wall with the wallpaper peeling off and laughed as Storm talked to her.  
  
"What are you trying to do, wind-rider? Tap into my maternal instincts? I could care less what happens to Kurt." Yellow eyes turned to the white haired woman. "You think I have morals? You couldn't be farther from the truth." She walked to the door turning to speak one last time before leaving. "It's all about survival and when it comes down to it, it's how many heads you're willing to cut off so you can live." With that she left the room leaving an angry Storm behind.  
  
"Why did I even try?" Ororo clenched her fists, making the storm outside rage even harder. "Charles, where are you?" There was a crash from downstairs snapping Storm from her thoughts.  
  
"Don't let the girl's with black hair get near you!" Lance warned as the wall crashed down the victim of a large shadow dog with red demon eyes. It gnashed its teeth and Avalanche was the only one with a clear view of the mutants attacking them.  
  
Naturally Wolverine didn't trust him and with the sound of metal sliding across metal he charged the one with the red shirt and black coat. He was one bound away from her when she held her hand up.  
  
"I don't think they have much of a choice. Sleep," she moved her hand downward and the angry little man's eyes closed and he fell to the floor. Then she turned him over and sunk her fangs into his neck.  
  
"Mr. Logan!" Kitty ran toward him phasing through the giant black dog and tackled Vampiress. "That's, like a disgusting thing to do." Large boots nailed her in the stomach and she was sent back wards.  
  
"Not as disgusting as what you were doing before we got here." With her new heightened senses it was clear that Kitty wasn't all that innocent. "Why don't you take a nap to?" The ground suddenly lurched under her causing her to fall and letting Shadowcat phase through the floor and get away.  
  
"Now is that fair?" Savage wrapped her arm around Lance's throat and pulled her knife out with her free hand, dragging the blade across his arm. "Never thought you to be the type to gang up on a fellow mutant." She bit the end of the fabric she used as a glove and pulled it off before tossing her knife and catching it by the blade to cut herself, then she put it back in it's sheath. Her wound was close to Avalanche's when he suddenly jerked forward to throw her off him.  
  
"I did what I had to." His feet suddenly felt warm and looked down to see that she had set the floor under him on fire.  
  
"Aren't stolen powers great?" An explosion from across the room lit up the dim room setting a still intact wall on fire.  
  
Blade held the chair leg turned blue light saber to Mystique's throat. "Get the chloroform, Lockpick. I'm running out of energy with this thing."  
  
The tan goo joined back together from being blasted in half holding a damp cotton swab. Darwin in chines letters was tattooed on her face and she shoved the swab into Mystique's face. "Don't feel bad, the strongest will always survive." She watched the older woman fall to the floor. "It's nature. Get her into the van."  
  
Blade nodded tossing the blue rod into the wall, slicing a few people minorly on it's way. Then he threw Mystique over his shoulder and headed for the white van.  
  
"Shit." Summoner punched Sunspot in the jaw sending him to the ground. "We've got to leave," he yelled to his teammates. "Bad Fido, down." It obviously wasn't going to work, but it was worth a try.  
  
With that they left as abruptly as them came leaving behind one destroyed house and an evil demon dog that was out of control. They'd also taken one blue bitch with them, so it all worked out.  
  
A/n: What does Magneto want with Mystique? Where is Xavier? Well, we might know in the second chapter, but don't hold your breath. Introduced in this chapter: Nova, Vampiress, Lockpick, Savage, Summoner, and Blade. More peps next chapter. And I apologize for any out of character-ness, it's a lot to remember. I try though, you have to give me that Disclaimer: Me? Own something? That's a riot! Only thing I own is my messed up little Vampiress. 


	2. Dead or Alive, does it really matter?

Kitty literally flung herself onto Lance practically hyperventilating. "Thank you thank you thank you!" It took a good few minutes for her to calm down enough to let go. The storm had let up and they were all in a park since the ghost dog had thoroughly destroyed the Brotherhood's home, probably still there devouring what was left of the yard. The fortunate thing was that it seemed to have lost interest in them and was just destroying things at random.  
  
Wolverine had woken up shortly after the puncture wounds the fangs had created healed and, once Kitty let go of Avalanche, Logan was on him like a lion on a sick gazelle. "How the hell did you know what that girl did?"  
  
"And, like, what exactly did she do?" Kitty asked using the sleeve of her pink over shirt (don't know what you'd call it) to soak the blood from Lance's wound and then tied the sleeve around his arm ripping it from the clothing itself.  
  
Ororo spoke up, "Yes, Lance, I'm sure we'd all like to know the answer to both of those questions, and Logan, please leave the boy alone." Reluctantly Logan obeyed, backing up and crossing his arms.  
  
"I met them before, the one that bit Logan, she goes by Vampiress during battle. By biting her victims she gets a weaker form of their power," Lance explained glancing at Logan to make sure he wasn't going to get attacked anytime soon. "The one that attacked me was Savage, she acquires powers through blood, that's why she cut herself so she could get some of my power into her. The other three were Summoner, Blade, and Lockpick."  
  
"Like, creepy." Kitty shivered and wondered why Scott was giving her a funny look, after living with him she could tell his expression through the way his mouth was turned and the creases on his forehead. Was he jealous? It looked it. -Oh my god, maybe he's jealous of Lance and he likes me.- She quickly dismissed that thought, sure he was cute and all but not her type. Wasn't he into Jean anyway?  
  
"Well, they took Mystique," Jean pointed out, "so that has to be good."  
  
"No," Scott shook his head, "she knows where the Professor is, and unless you actually got the idea to retrieve the information from her head, we need her to get him back."  
  
"Professor told me never to go into someone's mind without permission!" Jean defended herself shocked that Scott was turning on her.  
  
"That's never stopped you before," Scott muttered before taking in a deep breath. "We need a place to stay, and I personally don't want to go see what they left for us, cause it's probably not much. So any ideas?"  
  
"I want to go home," Kitty sniffed as the realization that she didn't have anywhere else to go set in. "I mean, we do have homes, can't we like, stay there till we find a place?"  
  
"What about us who don't have homes, yo?" Todd spoke up standing up next to Fred. "Want us just to stay out here while you are all comfy in your beds?"  
  
"Whatever," Kitty replied with a small shrug, "win some lose some I guess."  
  
"Bull shit."  
  
Lance spoke up before an argument could break out, "Look, you can all do whatever you want, we can find a way." He turned to Fred and Todd. "We always do don't we? I actually know a place, so let's just decide what we're going to do and then do it!"  
  
X  
  
Black eyes that were normally blue in their shade scanned over the screen of the computer, a slender hand brushing back her ash blonde hair from her eyes while typing without even touching the keyboard. Amazing what you could find when you hacked into the White House's main computer. Unfortunately there was nothing on the iron giants that had been there on that day a few months ago. Lots on cover ups of that day, and information on area 51 that was pretty useless.  
  
"How am I suppose to find something when I don't even know what I'm looking for." Catty shut the computer off eyes fading into their normal blue as she spun in the chair to face the security cameras. "What's on today?" Various images played before her. Remy out back with a cigarette, Lennox in his room dancing to his favorite punk CD, Aine and Teo re-dying her their hair for the second time this week, Alec and Johnny talking in the living room, Foxx training with Maya on the field, pretty much all the basic stuff was going on.  
  
"Is it just me, or is reality television taking over?" She spun in the chair again. A movement on the field caught her eye and she quickly enlarged the image to take up all the screens. "What do we have here?" A boy who looked almost frail but in a way not, like kind of how dancers looked frail, with straight ebony hair that hid his face tipped with copper was in the woods around the field watching Savage and Vampiress duel. He was about ten feet from the tree the camera was in.  
  
The TVs went back to their original pictures as Catty located Avril and Matt. They were watching a nature program on PBS, Matt fascinated by it and Avril upset. It was clear why, other than the fact she wanted her MTV, on the screen a golden eagle had just swooped onto a large rat and was carrying it off to be eaten. To show her displeasure the girl also known as Rodent took off one of her black leather boots and threw it at the TV. Then she took her other one off and threw it at Matt, who ducked barely missing being hit with the clunky thing and relaxing back into the couch like nothing had happened.  
  
"Hey you two," the blonde with black stripes in her hair called over the intercom to just that room, "I've got something for you to do, there's some kid by the field next to camera 180C, could you check him out?"  
  
"Why can't you?" Avril protested taking a swig of her soda.  
  
"Cause you two can be less obvious," a now slightly irritated Catty replied. "Could you just do this? I have to turn the outside sprinklers on Lebeau." With that the intercom clicked off and so did the TV as Matt jumped up.  
  
"Maybe I can carry you?" He teased as tattoo like patters of feathers started to spread across his skin. "I promise not to eat you." The pattern burst into 3D tawny brown feathers as he started to shrink while his bones readjusted themselves to that of a red tailed hawk.  
  
"No way, Bird Boy, I can get there myself just fine." With that the tall young woman left leaving Matt to go out the open window.  
  
A/N: Ack, I know that was insanely short but I wanted to post this before I leave which is tomorrow, so next chapt you'll get to see more of Avril and Matt and the not so mysterious if you read the bios stranger. Till the nexy chapter I'm going to be lying by the pool, watching cable, and sitting for nine hours in a car with my mom, little bro, and two dogs- somehow that went downhill- hm. 


	3. You've Gotta Kick at the Darkness Until ...

blah equal mindspeech (telepathy and what Matt and Avril use in animal form, I guessed cause it was specified. Hope that was ok.)  
  
With her new acquired senses Maya was perfectly aware of the boy in the foliage watching her and Foxx, along with the boy she could smell the hawk and the rat watching him for anything threatening.  
  
Even a good hour after the battle had ended adrenaline still pumped through her veins the taste of blood still lingering in her mouth. No one would ever know if it was up to her, but she enjoyed sinking her fangs into the soft flesh of the neck and lapping up the crimson fluid that helped make up life. It was macabre, and she was perfectly aware of that. It took will power to stop from rushing into that wooded area and draining him. A shake of her head cleared the thoughts.  
  
"Is la-la land fun?" Foxx asked accompanied by a small laugh standing in the dry, yellowing grass, sweat dripping down her tanned golden skin making her black tank top stick to her skin where the perspiration touched. She cocked her head to the side, smooth black hair falling with the motion as her pale blue eyes studied her friend's distant and alert look. "Ok, what's up?" Her slender hands set firmly on her curvy hips as she waited for an answer, one steel toed boot tapping on the bone-dry ground.  
  
"Nothing, there's just someone in the bushes," Maya shrugged and swept her black red streaked hair out of her face using red nails as a rake. "It's being handled." Her deathly pale hazel eyes turned toward her peer dark red lips curling into a smirk, "now come on, we were training."  
  
X  
  
Tel barely blinked as he watched the two girls duel with each other, knowing it wasn't a serious fight by the lack of blood drawn and the fact neither seemed to be fighting as he would, with anything he had.  
  
"Shove it," he whispered harshly as Melk brought up what a bad idea this was his constant presence becoming annoying. After a few years Tel could easily ignore it, but it could still get to him. Melk alternating between disapproval and paranoia only emphasized the feeling of being watched. This would be just another long list of things for the voice to hold against him, like how they were nowhere near Los Angelus or how he should've gotten an education. It was like having parents that watched your every move and didn't know when the hell to shut up!  
  
With a roll of his dark green eyes Melk was told one last time to shut up and Tel went back to arguing with himself (not Melk) whether to make his presence known while he fidgeted with his silver pentacle pendant. "Ok, I'm going."  
  
Let's make it easy for him. Rodent suggested scampering closer on small, clawed rat feet. Small beady eyes took in the slender boy as her whiskers twitched at his smell. He smells like cigarette smoke and old fish. She let out a sharp breath through her nose and scrambled back into the bushes.  
  
Now is that very nice?  
  
Oh it's true, bird boy, now go get Strife and Arctic, I think giving him a scare before bringing him to the boss  
  
That wasn't nice either, Matt stated before taking wing, he knew the two with their pale appearance and pale eyes. Neither of them were exactly friendly either, well, at least not that he knew of.  
  
"What do you want?" Ian asked not bothering to look up from his book as he heard the soft rustle of wings in his silent room. He heard bones rearranging and bothered a glance up at the half hawk half boy. He hated being bothered, usually it was one of the girls trying to warm him up, which he had to admit was amusing at times.  
  
"Thewe's aw imtrwu." Ave stopped twisting his human tongue in his hooked beak. "I hate when that happens, anyway," he itched his arm as the last of the feathers disappeared, "some guy thought it would be ok to just sneak onto our property and spy on us." Ian looked far from interested. "Avril wanted me to get you and Sean to bring him in."  
  
"Can't you two do that yourself?"  
  
Matt shrugged, "Probably but who knows what he can do, or there is always a possibility he's a normal human," he paused as if chewing on the thought, "more reason to bring him in I suppose, just get out there."  
  
"If I don't?"  
  
"You'll have to ask Avril that question."  
  
"Fine, I'll humor her, I'd rather she not pester me," he closed his book after dog earring a page and stood up. "I get enough of that around here."  
  
Probably another reason Avril chose the two loners to help was that they were so easy to find, a bit predictable if you thought about it. So unless he'd disappeared again to who knows where, Sean would be in his room.  
  
"I swear you must be stoned to enjoy this stuff," Matt wrinkled his nose at the symphony of strings playing on the older mutant's stereo and the paintings on the wall. It wasn't that he hated art and classical music, it was just that Strife's room gave him the creeps. It wasn't describable, just kind of like a coffin is creepy to some people, except this one contained classical music. Ok, he'd admit it, he didn't care for classical music and strange paintings. That's what you get though when you live with a bunch of people who were commonly abused through their life, weirdness.  
  
"It's relaxing," Strife simply replied, lied back on the bed that had no use since he never needed to sleep and just staring at the ceiling. Curious Matt looked up seeing only a plain white ceiling and just shrugged. "Any reason you're here?"  
  
"Um. yes, some guy wandered onto the field and is spying on Vampiress and Savage," Strife sat up at the mention of a stranger, "hoping you and Arctic could, you know, scare him a bit then take him to the boss."  
  
"Scare?" Sean shook his head as Matt nodded slowly. "I'm busy."  
  
"Yes, that is a very interesting ceiling you've got there."  
  
"Will you leave me alone if I do this?" Sean asked in a smooth, calm tone arching one eyebrow when Matt crossed his arms.  
  
"Why does everyone want me to go away?" The shifter looked back up the ceiling with his lips pressed firmly together. "It's not like I get in anyone's way." When he looked back at the bed a slight imprint on the blankets was the only sign Strife had been there. "Fine, I'll go complain to Johnny Torch, haven't bothered him lately."  
  
X  
  
"Wait you guys," Kurt said as the 'meeting' silently declared over started to break up, "we have a better chance of finding the Professor if we stay together." He looked around the group. "Ach, if we split up now we'll have no chance," his accent was thickening with his heightening distress that they'd all split up and the X-men would fall like a house of cards.  
  
"Kurts right," Scott stated with a slight nod and looked at Lance who was standing by the remains of his team, the Toad and the Blob. "Do any of you know why they took Mystique?"  
  
"Other than the fact he betrayed her, no," Lance shook his head, "Magneto never seemed the type to physically torture someone for any reason."  
  
To everyone's surprise Wolverine spoke up. "Kid is right, he prefers to put his enemies through mental anguish and make them want to die then grants them their wish if he thinks it's in his best interest. He also loves a challenge, though he doesn't show it as much as Quicksilver does."  
  
"Don't remind me of him, yo, he's dead as far as I'm concern," Todd folded his arms over his ratty shirt and frowned as Fred nodded. "Didn't even care that Fred was captured, if he had he would've helped with the rescue, but no he has to be Daddy's little boy, the fu."  
  
"Enough Toad!" Lance snapped as quick as a cat would grab a mouse, "We're discussing Magneto right now, not Pietro."  
  
Wanda stood off to the side completely submerged in her own world, remembering the day close to a year after she was put in the nut house, hearing them talk about the little vampire girl and joking how they should get along. she knew the vampires weakness. She knew somehow soon the vampire and the witch were going to face each other and she planned to be prepared so she could get to Magneto and make him pay, no matter what the fools decided to do.  
  
X  
  
"What do you want from me?" Mystique asked watching Magneto walk around the room as if nothing was out of the ordinary, his son stood by the door. "And why are you keeping that little pest around? He only chooses the side that has his best interests."  
  
"I tend to keep my side in his best interests," Magneto replies smoothly letting out a heavy sigh when Dawn waltzed through the door  
  
"Sorry, left my coat in here," she yawned as she threw her jacket over her shoulder. "Oh, and I was suppose to tell you something. something about a stranger." She shrugged and left. As she reopened the door there was the sound of shrieking, clearly Teo excited over something or another and Erik paused, waited until the girl stopped and the sound of the newest Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD came from the television.  
  
"Why do you put up with them? Isn't it more liked you to have someone else care for them?" Mystique only laughed but was cut short as with a wave of his father's hand, Pietro rushed up to her, shook his finger at her then slapped her.  
  
"You've no idea how long I've wanted to do that," he smirked in his usual manner except with more smugness.  
  
"The last person I trusted with my recruits betrayed me and now thanks to that I've lost a perfectly good earth manipulator." He gave her a cross look. "I only make mistakes once."  
  
"Then why tolerate them? Why let them run wild through the halls."  
  
"It's called freedom, spare time, sometimes fear is the best, but I think letting them have their own space will give me their respect. So far, it's worked." He tightened the metal chains binding her to the metal chair. "As for what I want from you." He stopped as Lennox slipped into the room.  
  
"Sorry," He stood on the opposite side of the room than Pietro did, "needed to ask you something, but it can wait."  
  
"Where's Charles?"  
  
"Why do you care?" Mystique asked smoothly, "He's no threat to you anymore."  
  
"He never was one."  
  
Lennox nodded his head in agreement ignoring Pietro's glare.  
  
"He is still my friend."  
  
Lennox'a jaw slacked a little.  
  
"I don't want him dead."  
  
Lennox's jaw dropped a little more.  
  
"I've always appreciated a challenge, no where near as much as my son does. I want him to see my victory over his beloved X-men. I want him to be free when I do."  
  
"What?" Lennox shook his head in disbelief. "I don't believe this, you're going to let that human lover go when he's out of the way already?"  
  
"Yes," Magneto turned to the energy-altering mutant, "it would be too easy to take the world without him opposing me."  
  
"Whatever you say, Boss." Blade was once again silent as the interrogation continued.  
  
X  
  
"May I help you?" Strife didn't even blink as the boy he'd appeared behind after a string of teleportations spun around to face him. He was used to people practically screaming when he just appeared behind them.  
  
"No," Tel replied calmly, "just browsing."  
  
Sean raised an eyebrow at the remark as Arctic (who has so many names it's hard to figure who I'm talking about, hehe j/k) stepped out from the bushes, Avril already back on the couch with Matt fighting over the remote.  
  
"Then you wouldn't mind coming with us, would you?"  
  
"Uh." Tel looked around, concentrated on the tree next to him making it vanish and ran. He wasn't sure what else to do, for all he knew these were people who wanted to experiment on him.  
  
"Why hello there." A weight struck Tel in the stomach and he was pinned by the shoulders. He looked into the face of the pale girl with the black hair and tensed when he saw a pair of fangs twice the size of a normal tooth.  
  
"Maya, leave him," Strife commanded wrapping his hand around her arm and pulled her up.  
  
"Magneto will want to meet this one," Wolf reached down and offered a gloved hand to help the boy up.  
  
Tel turned to run again, only to fall back down when he pivoted right into Savage. "Who are you people?"  
  
"We're mutants," Foxx replied look down at him, "like you are, judging by that tree thing."  
  
A/N: Yes, I LIVE! Um. yeah, review. And if any of the people who own one of the original characters see another OC that strikes their interest tell me, I'd like to throw in some romance. jumps around LETS PLAY MATCHMAKER! 


	4. Dangerous Times Require Dangerous People

This is so AU -_^ ~blah~ equals animal talk (I've been watching the Wild Thornberries, horrible animation but entertaining none the less)  
  
Angelique leaned against the head of her bed, a small breeze blowing into her open window as she waited for the raven. A large black figure glided through her into the dimly light room and landed on her foot board chattering and clacking it's beak. ~Calm down,~ she cawed back at it waving her hand, ~I can't understand you when you talk like that.~ She waited for the bird to calm down and then held her arm out for it to perch on. ~Ok, now what did you say?~ ~House fell.~ the raven answered as best he could. Though he was indeed an intelligent creature getting used to a human speaking his language and human grammar was difficult. ~Ghost dog destroyd, blue human taken, brought back here. Blue and red lights already there.~ Angelique nodded slowly. So that mission Magneto had sent some of the others on was successful but the cops were already on it, that could make the man's mood go either way. ~What about the people who lived there?~ She took a strand of silver tinsel she'd braided into a lock of her hair that gleamed a red that was near black. The raven stared at the shiny material and clacked his beak again. ~They left, ran from ghost dog.~ He stopped and didn't talk until the tinsel was drapped around his neck. ~Stopped at park, talked there. Kah didn't understand.~ Kah was infact the raven's name and sometimes it could confuse those he knew. ~Humans have funny language. Kah understands only Flidais.~ The young woman stood up still holding the large black bird on her arm and walked to the window. "I swear you're worse than Remy when it comes to speaking in third person." The bird just looked at her not understanding but really not caring. ~Keep an eye on them,~ she told him, ~tell me of anything that happens.~ By now she didn't even have to tell Kah why he should cooperate, through doing as she asked he would be rewarded by meat or something shiny to give to his mate. Without another sound large black wings carried him into the air and across the ash night. X "Petite, we've watched this five times now," Remy stretched out in the recliner, "Gambit gettin' bored. Why don't you put something else in?" Teo turned her brown eyes on the cajun and clenched the remote. "What do you suggest," she asked strangely calm that made Alec, who was sitting next to her, wary. "All the good shows are canceled so that the news can show your mess and panic the general public." "That's why we got tapes," the Cajun answered. "Come on, chere..." He was cut off by a pillow smacking him in the face. "Nope." The hawaiiian turned back to the TV ignoring Blue as he chuckled and sat on the couch between her and Alec. "Better be careful, Remy," the owner of the ghost dog Kah had told Angelique about warned, "don't want her becoming Teo the Cajun slayer again." Alec grinned blowing some of his sunstreaked hair out of his steel gray eyes. He didn't care much for watching the same thing multiple times, but invocking the wrath of Teo was not a smart thing to do, as Remy had found out the hard way when one day Teo got bored and angry and chased him around with a handful of toothpicks. It'd taken her a good hour to get bored of playing Cajun slayer and then watched every Brad Pitt movie in the house. "I'm going to get out of here before things get ugly," the Orange County native got up and stretched before heading toward the used to be a counciler's office. Through the narrow glass window he could see Peter with his arm around Dawn as they watched the TV. Both looked a bit upset and Johnny was saying something to try and lighten things up. It really wasn't working. "The news is going to have anything on and turn it bad," St. John was saying with a shrug as Alec walked into the room. "They like making people panic. If a bunch of rabbits got loose they'd claim homicidal rabbits were trying to take over the world." The dream manipulator shook her head, brown hair swaying slightly with the motion and sivler highlights catching the light making her appear to have a halo. "If they ever find out about us," she stood up and shrugged on her leather jacket over her silver tank, "Magneto will only be able to protect some of us." She looked at Alec almost worriedly with bright hazel eyes giving away what she was really feeling, "there won't be anything he can do for anyone over eighteen, will there?" Alec sighed and flopped onto the couch not wanting to think or talk about it about it but knnowing he had no choice. "Probably not, has legal custody of you and the other younger ones, but only way we'd stay if they came is by force." He cracked his left knuckles not liking the idea very much, but if push came to shove... "Let's not think about it," Kaze replied from the corner, watching the mutants on the screen and the scene switching to earlier events with blank black eyes, "nothing we can do except wait for them all to calm down." Tama lied at his feet ignoring the humans altogether cleaning her right paw. "I'm going to bed." With that he retired for it had grown late and he hoped that in the morning the news would shut up about this whole mutant thing, though it was highly unlikely.  
  
X  
  
"This is royally screwed up," Matt complained as he sat with Avril watching Jackass. He didn't want to, but he had to admit the girl was good company and was semi-nice without being insane, which was rare in this household.  
  
"No one's keeping you here, feather butt," Avril smirked hidding the remote under her seat coshion. "And I refuse to see another show where a rat gets eatten."  
  
Maya didn't as much as glance at the two as she passed behind the couch, in fact she nearly ran into Hoshei who was headed to the bathroom with her favorite bubblegum scented bubblebath.  
  
"Hey," the chinese girl reformed her arm and frowned, "watch where you're going., Doe." She then continued on her way not waiting for an answer. She needed bubbles!  
  
"Sorry," Maya mumbled taking the stairs two at a time until she was on the second floor. She entered the third door down and saw the large window open letting a cool breeze blow in and the sound of crickets penetrate the concrete walls. She stepped through the metal frame onto the graveled surface of the first floor roof that extended from the second floor recognizing the figure standing at the far corner just gazing into the night sky. She looked up to try and see what the other was looking at and when she looked back at him there was nothing.  
  
"Funny how the sky is so beautiful at a time that's generally feared, "Sean whispered from behind her. Not sleeping gave one a lot of time on their hands and with all the commotion about mutants going on, and the feeling of his team mates, he had plenty of hate on which to feed off of.  
  
"I suppose it is." They were silent for a while just looking at the black emptyness penetrated only by points of light that may have gone out years ago. "Magneto is going to deal with Tel in the morning, he put him in the guest bedroom for now."  
  
Strife nodded, his pale skin seemingly glowing by the light of the mooon. "Anymore paintings?"  
  
"No," Maya retorted shaking her head, she'd had no time to let her feelings flow across the page, she used to have all the time she wanted when she lived with Magneto's associate and all of the dark artr wouldn't fit in her room so Sean had taken some of it, probably just to be nice. "I wish I had more time to do more than just battle."  
  
"What would you do?"  
  
The question stumped her. "I don't know, write and paint and read. I don't know," she repeated. "Maybe I actually wish I had less time." She was so confused for everytime she acquired a power a part of that person would stay with her forever and she felt like she was slowly slipping away. The new aggression of Wolverine was hard to deal with when up against the gentleness of the person she'd gotten the power to send people into sleep from, the protective nature of the telepath her empathy had originated from, and the dark emptyness that was her. "I'm just so confused."  
  
"Don't worry about it, we all are. I've seen a lot and I know that is one thing everyone, humans and mutants, have in common. They're confused."  
  
X  
  
Kitty stretched and winced when her back cracked, "I am not made for, like, sleeping on the floor." She rubbed her eyes and saw that Scott, Lance, Logan, Storm, Fred, and Beast were already up. "Eek!" She screamed and hid behind Logan as a tongue caught a fly by her head.  
  
"What?" Toad asked swallowing, "high in protein, yo."  
  
"Well at least someone gets to eat," the valley girl muttered sticking out her tongue. "This really sucks, you know. Whose bringht idea was it to sleep in a cave anyway? And where did you two disappear to last night?" She eyed Lance and Scott.  
  
"Relax, Kitty," Lance soothed leaning against a rock wall like they were at school instead of being chased, "we went to see how deep this stupid hole in the wall went, not to kill each other."  
  
The brunette rolled her eyes, "That's a miracle, but you two have been like best friends lately or something."  
  
"I think you're delusional, Kitty," Scott added walking toward the light at the mouth of the cave and peering outside, "I'd rather take up Toad's eating habits before I got along with Alvers for any reason other than I had to."  
  
"What's so wrong with my eatin' habits?" Todd looked up insulted after slurping a worm up like speghetti. "Least I ain't picky, you guys ain't gonna get any food because you're close minded, that's what you are!"  
  
"Oh yeah," Cyclops muttered under his breath, "real close minded." For a while last night the world wasn't so cruel, of course that was after Lance jumped him. In truth they actually had been looking further into the cave, but Scott had found himself suddenly pinned between Lance and rock. The shaded mutant had complained that they could get caught, but that only made Lance smile and Scott had given in, and he was glad he did afterwards. Everyone had thought they'd gotten into another fight and that was just fine.  
  
"Well we can't just waltz into McDonalds," Lance grumbled crossing his arms and eyeing Blob, "Fred put the worm down, we're all hungry but just think for once." The largest mutant put down the worm just to have Toad snag it with his tongue.  
  
"Mmm, earthy."  
  
"May I just say gross?" Kitty asked sticking out her tongue, "Jeeze, you think survival training would prepare us for stuff like this."  
  
Todd had abandoned his search for breakfast and had now taken to watching Wanda sleep. "Yeah, but it didn't. Good grades ain't everything, Pryde. Actually I seem to 'member somethin' abouit eating insects if you were lost in the wild." He scanned the floor till he saw another worm, as it was dark and moist so there were plenty of them, and picked it up holding it out to Kitty as an offering. "Bonappetite."  
  
"I'm like going to be sick."  
  
The sun was completely up now and Lance didn't waste any time getting out of the musty cave. He looked back after deciding it was clear and motioned to Todd. "Come on, we'll get something." He wasn't going to say where they were going to get it, Kitty was in enough distress as it was. "You too, Summers, five eyes are better than four." Pietro would usually come with them, but Pietro was with his daddy probably eating pancakes and eggs while Magneto read the newspaper. Something messed up from a sitcom or something like that.  
  
"I have two eyes, Alvers," Scott glowered, "and I'll show you to them if you'd like." He stalked after the two Brotherhood boys anyway though.  
  
"So, McDonalds or Burgerking?" Todd asked walking infront of the older teens rubbing his hands together.  
  
"We can't go in either one," Scott pointed out trying to keep a steady pace on the slope, "without a swarm of cops on our asses."  
  
"Ooo, Summers cussed, Lance has been a bad influence on you," Todd 'tsked and shook is finger in a shame-shame way.  
  
The ground rumbled and the toad like teen fell flat on his face.  
  
"Hey." He gulped as the two stood over him. "Please no," he threw his hands over his head, "I'm not that way!" He wasn't suprised when Lance lifted him up by his shirt. He was used to being punished for having a big mouth.  
  
"What are you talking about?" The earth shaker asked in a slow even tone that scred Todd to death.  
  
"Nothin', nothin' what so..." He cringed as the earth started to shake again. "Ok, ok, I saw you two yesterday, happy now? Wanted to gouge my eyes out, I'm sorry," he covered his head, "please don't kill me, I'm totally cool with it. Whatever makes you happy I say." He shivered as Lance dropped him none too gently.  
  
"How much did you watch?"  
  
"Not much," Todd lied because it'd been like watching some morbid horror flick, you wanted to look away but you just couldn't. "Just you press him against the wall and, you know." Why do I have to open my big mouth? Todd silently whined.  
  
Lance looked at him for a long moment then spoke again. "Keep you mouth shut Toad," he growled, "it's hard enough being a mutant." With that he continued into Bayville not waiting for Scott and Todd to follow.  
  
"Man, yo, someone needs their coffee." Todd got up and brushed himself off ready for Scott to pound him now. "Folgers was not in his cup."  
  
"He just worries," Scott replied following after Lance, pausing to make sure Toad was behind him, "thinks you guys would look down on us." Himself? He was only half worried about that, really didn't care much, as Todd had said: Whatever makes you happy.  
  
"So you steady or just bed buddies?" And there goes my big mouth again, Todd thought. "Not that I'm implying that you'd do something like that, Lance would, but not to you of course, I mean... Are you two serious?"  
  
Scott was silent as he thought. "I'll have to ask him," he finally said ignoring the other's nervous rambling.  
  
"You want to be steady?"  
  
Scott just starred at Lance's back not knowing the answer. Then, after the Toad was positive he wasn't going to answer, he replied, "Maybe, I just hope we live long enough to find out."  
  
A/N: Yes, I got another chapter up. Um, something I forgot to mention when introducing this interfic to people is that some characters will die like censored and if you are ok with that then tell me. OH! And also I have decided that if any other people who are obbsessively interested in this (like none of you are) that if you want and you get permission from whatever people's persona you use that other authors who just need help getting over writter's block can put in little parts, just e mail me it and I might add it in or if I get enough I'll start a collection of stories under one fic with Crash and Burn mini-fics. and vote for who you want to join the Acolytes! Magneto is probably going to recruit some more people from ther other side. Why? Because I told him to.  
  
Next Chapter: Mystique get's a taste of what Magneto's recruits can do when she refuses to tell Magneto where Xavier is and Lance, Scott, and Todd find themselves in a tight spot and are saved by some unlikely people. 


End file.
